On Salary Transparency

You might have noticed that in recent weeks, we’ve started to post a lot fewer job listings. This is because we decided that in order to be more consistent with our mission, which focuses on social justice and improvement of labor standards, we are now only posting jobs that include a transparent salary range.

The site came about partially because of my own frustration from seeing so many nonprofit entry-level jobs that paid full-time annual salaries in the 20,000s. Those were annoying, but even worse was spending hours writing a tailored cover letter (while balancing other responsibilities!) to realize later in the process that there was no way I could live on the salary they would offer. Back to square one for both of us. Being asked to provide salary expectations or salary history in an application wasn’t any better. Far from being a negotiation, such a practice is simply dishonest: an organization almost certainly has an idea of the salary range they want to offer. Organizations that tout working towards improving labor standards and more shouldn’t be doing this.

Fortunately, I noticed there was an increasing movement of people advocating for salary transparency in the nonprofit world. Vu (creator of Nonprofit AF)’s take on this is the most witty and simple argument I’ve seen so far. He points out that salary-cloaking wastes everyone’s time and discourages great candidates – including people of color, women, parents of young children, and people with disabilities – from applying, and negotiating their salaries with confidence … for the same job description!

Salary-cloaking wastes everyone’s time and discourages great candidates – including people of color, women, parents of young children, and people with disabilities – from applying.

So now, we will continue thoroughly combing through all potential postings to make sure they:

We know a lot of employers that care about the social good simply haven’t thought about salary transparency as related to social justice. Maybe they are just doing it the way they always have done it. But we are working towards change.

But we are working towards change.

If you see a job that looks cool but doesn’t include salary, still send it to us! We will inquire about salary, framed as a positive opportunity to get that listing on our site where 6000+ unique visitors (!) will see it. If you are submitting a job and are planning to do the hiring yourself, you must provide a salary range. An actual number. Yes, for exceptional candidates you can budge the upper limits, but you must provide a baseline.

We are excited about the impact, however slight, that this policy change will have. Please share with us any feedback you have. Additionally, consider supporting us on Patreon for a small recurring amount, or on PayPal for a one-time donation of your choosing. Keeping JFSI alive takes a lot of time and effort.